Monday, May 5th ~ CRUISE DAY.
We’d booked our trip March 2nd, 2013 – some 15 months earlier. 
We’d counted down daily on our calendar from Christmas time.
We woke up Monday morning more than a little excited.

There was a bit of anxiety, too.  Packing for a vacation within a vacation was a bit hairy.  I’d spent 90 minutes after we’d gotten in on Saturday night ironing our formal clothes.  That tote from the back of our car had been filled with shoes and swim gear.  We needed to find room in our bags to pack all that stuff as a tote isn’t exactly considered luggage by baggage handlers.  After emptying out some of the kids’ back packs we had a plan. 

Our Port Arrival Time (PAT) was 11 A.M. – the earlier allowed (not that I set my alarm and got up at midnight 90 days prior or anything).  So around 9:30 A.M. we snapped a photo (or 8) and loaded into the car.   (Yes, John has a fanny pack. I had one too until I found a different kind of bag recently. We are NEVER far from Epi-pens!)

Now, I could pretend to be all mature and sophisticated and act casual about the whole experience, but my kids would blow me in that wouldn’t honor God.  I must be truthful. 

I was giddy.

And even though I’d seen a few You Tube videos of other people’s reactions, I’m here to confess that as we drove over the causeway

and our ship came into view

I had a hard time deciding if I should snap photos or reach for the Kleenex.

It was totally a WOW moment.  W.O.W. 
Disbelief and elation at the same time. 
I am not too cool to admit I was probably more excited than my kiddos.

John dropped us off and parked our van.  We took some photos and waited for him before heading into the terminal.  The whole thing felt surreal; it was like an out-of-body experience for me.  The Disney terminal staff was unbelievably nice and worked to get our two staterooms 100% synced.  This took a few more minutes than I had planned, but it worked out GREAT.  We were given the boarding number of group 5, which was being welcomed aboard just as we were finishing up our check-in. 

Honestly, I am surprised I managed to get any shots at this point, because, once again, I was crying.  🙂

As you get on the ship they take your photo and then announce you.  Nan got on right before us and took our photo.  But I don’t have it yet. 
But at this point just imagine me softly sniffling and the kids with eyes the size of saucers as they look around the Atrium of the ship. 

We sought directions to Carioca’s, the restaurant I wanted to have lunch in, and began our vacation…

The girls piled their plates HIGH with shrimp and Nigel headed right for the roast beef.  Stewart had his first of many personalized desserts.

Somewhere in the midst of lunch I realized this was all Really Happening and I endeavored to savor every moment…
Staterooms are unavailable until 1:30 P.M. so we headed up to the deck.  It was “only” 80 degrees for the most part of our vacation, but in the direct sunlight it felt much warmer.  Honestly, the weather was perfect the entire cruise. 

The big four ducked into a bathroom and changed into their swim gear (we had in a carry-on). They headed directly to the Aquadunk.

My rule for when the four of them go together for a waterslide is brother-sister-sister-brother.  This way the boys are bookends for the girls at the top and bottom of the slides.  Nigel went first. 

Then Marie.

Then my sweet 8-trying-to-be-13 year old.

And finally Stewart. 

I spotted Nan exploring deck 9, and then found Pluto as I worked my way back to John and little girls.  Turns out Nan had taken Johanna to meet him!

At 1:30 P.M. I headed to our stateroom to get some pictures before we disheveled the place and to dump our carry-on. 

Our category 10A rooms are technically “Deluxe Inside Staterooms” but really are rooms with portholes. Because the portholes are obscured with doodads they can’t charge full outside stateroom fare.  WE DIDN’T KNOW THIS WHEN WE BOOKED THEM!  I had simply looked for adjoining rooms in our price range.  This was a special treat from Jesus, I am certain.  They are dubbed SPH (Secret Porthole) rooms.  We were hardly EVER in our staterooms, but it was nice to see the water when we were in them. 

We had a split bath, which means shower/tub and sink in one room, and toilet and sink in the other.  Tiny, but clean.
The boys, Katriel and I had this stateroom.  John and the three other girls had a mirror image one.  There were two small differences.  His shower had awesome water pressure and mine was ridiculous.  And he had a refrigerator and I had a cooler.

While the stateroom is SMALL, you can see there is storage EVERYWHERE, including under the bed.  I argue there are too many places to put things as evidenced by how many drawers, doors, cupboards, etc., we had to look in to find all our stuff to pack on disembarkation day. 

This is the adult pool – “Quite Cove.”  I walked through it a few times during our trip but never hung out there. 

Back on deck, the kids took to swimming and I took Johanna to change into her swim suit. She wasn’t interested in anything but the toddler splash area. It made it very easy to watch her!

We visited the drink station on Deck 9 more times than I can count.  They also had coffee, many teas, hot chocolate, milk, and juices. 

We checked out the staterooms as a family.

And then went to the open house in the Oceaneer Club, & Oceaneer Lab.

And then we went on deck for the mandatory muster drill. (We haven’t even set sail yet!)

We decorated our doors

We attended the Casting Off Deck Party (no pictures – just goofy iPhone video that doesn’t make sense out of context).

Visited the boys’ space, The Edge.

Then we took in a movie in the Buena Vista Theater.  We watched Muppets: Most Wanted.  I was able to read the PluggedIn online review before we lost cellular reception and the review was favorable.  We LOVED it. 

Okay – Katriel got bored and Hanny got scared, so John and Nan left with them. 

After the movie we had just enough time to dress for dinner and pose for some pictures.

Our first (and fourth) night of rotational dining was in Lumiere’s.  I’ll have photos to share later.  Our serving team was made up of Genesis, our main server from the Philippines, and Joe, our assistant server, from India.  We also have photos of them from later in the cruise.  The head server, Sorin, also helped us out with Stewart’s food allergies.  I WISH I had taken photos of the food.  It was excellent.  Folks who cruise all the lines frequently will readily report that DCL has less wonderful food than her maritime counterparts.  If that is the case, I don’t think I could handle the other lines.  We found our food out of this world yummy.  I will admit that other than ice cream it is hard to find desserts during the day.  So – quite often in the evening… I would order TWO!

On a trip out to the rest room, Johanna got to meet Minnie Mouse.

After dinner we took the little girls up to bed, and let the big kids change back into casual clothes.  Despite the fact it was 9:30 or so, the big four were allowed to go back to their spaces (a/k/a clubs) to have some fun.  We picked the girls up at 10:45 P.M. and the boys were back by 11:05 P.M.

THAT WAS JUST THE FIRST DAY!